Heart of Midlothian Shareholders Association Dinner, 4th October 2023 

 

Question and Answer Session with Sporting Director, Joe Savage and Head Coach, Steven Naismith

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1 - Are you going to beat Hibs on Saturday?

SN – We’ll do our best to beat them, we’re hoping the atmosphere will be like the last game of the season which was great.  Hibs are a different team under Montgomery, they don’t throw as many punches 😊

 

2 – What did you say to Lee Johnson?

SN – I just said unlucky, I was on a yellow and didn’t want to get involved and was on my best behaviour.

 

3 – I don’t know if you read Jambos Kickback – I think he was trying to ask if the players are coached)

SN – The pitch is a nightmare and isn’t great for football.  I thought we scored two good goals last week.  That’s Social Media though and everyone has an opinion.

Only a few people will make it as professional footballers and our players work extremely hard to get there.  There’s an instant success mentality which makes it hard, we’ve got a really young squad and they will make mistakes, but they have to learn from them and look to improve so that we can have success in the years going forward.

I think when we’ve been good this season, it’s been great to watch but we’ve also been bad at times which isn’t good to watch but we’re working hard to improve and I’m confident watching the players develop that we’ll see great improvement over the next six months.

 

Q4 – We’ve got the academy and we have people telling us how great it is, but we don’t see the results in the first team.  Is it worthwhile?

SN – In short, yes it is.  I worked there and can see first hand but I understand the we’ve not had the players coming through that we’d hoped for.  Lee Wallace was possibly the last player we had come through.  Hickey was not ours to start with.

We’ve got some really good players but some don’t understand how football works.  There was a B game last year and a player went through against us and our defender just put his hands in the air so as not to catch the player and he went through and scored.  I asked what he was doing and he said he would have fouled him and I said that’s exactly what you should be doing, stop the game.  It’s about game management and they need to learn that.  At the moment it can be hard to trust youngsters coming into the first team as they need to improve their game management but we’re working on it.

Last season, we conceded lots of goals in in games through silly mistakes in the B Team, that’s not happening this season as the players are learning.  We’ve also brought in Lee Wallace & Liam Fox to improve the coaching side.

Aiden Denholm is a good example, his attitude is first class.  I trusted him in the Euro games, he may make mistakes but that’s because he’s young.  He’ll learn and improve but people want instant success and JKB will slaughter him for these mistakes.  For us it’s about managing him properly.

If players do well in the U18s / B Team then we’ll get them training with the first team and they know that.

James Wilson played a pre season friendly against Mansfield at age 16 which was great for him.

It can be tough at times, but we need to back these guys and get behind them if they make mistakes.

 

JS – When I came in, we only had an U18s and it was a huge step up from their to the first team and we campaigned to get a B team into the league.  We’ve not got 14 & 15 year olds in the U18s and 16 & 17 year olds in the B team, it’s tough for them but it’ll help them for the step up to the first team.

Aiden Denholm was released in January by Robbie.  Steven got the job and wanted to give Aiden a contract and he’s kicked on since then.  We’ve got a good team with good players and we need good players coming through from the academy but we’re not just going to put youth players into the first team for the sake of it.  They need to be good enough and we can’t let average players step up as it benefits nobody.

 

Q5 – I agree with SN that we need to give youth a change.  Question for Joe, how do you think the recruitment was in the summer?

JS – I think it was good, we targeted players and tried to sign them, we did miss out on some of our top targets for various reasons and then we have to work down our list.  It’s been good but only time will tell and we hope that they will settle in and develop.  I see it as there are three types on players we can bring in.

1. Ready made straight in the team players, these are hard to get and there’s usually a premium with regards to cost.

2. Signings that make the squad better and will develop and become first team players.

3. Signings to improve others.  An example would be if we bring in another striker, that’ll hopefully lead to the other strikers stepping up to ensure they keep their place.  Boyce is an example of this when we’ve brought in a new striker before he’s stepped up his game each time. 

I need to stress that I don’t sign the players, I identify them but Steven will always have the final say, I’m not trying to pass the buck but I can’t push players onto the manager and all signings have to be agreed by him.  I’ve been called a baldy prick and given loads of abuse at the games and it’s not nice.  I got slaughtered for saying I want to beat the Old Firm, but you need to believe otherwise what’s the point. 

 

SN – I joined in 2017 an the turnover of players since then has been crazy and there’s no way it can lead to success.  I’m sure there was one window where we signed 16 or 17 players.  You can’t just keep churning over players and players.  Calem Nieuwenhof had never left Australia before coming here, for the first three weeks he was so quiet and it’s taking him time to settle in and we’re prepared to give him the time as we believe in him. 

What we won’t do is sign players for the sake of it.  I guarantee that by December when Calem and the other new players are up to speed we’ll be far better.

Offiah came to us from Brighton and it was his first loan, he’s went from basically playing U23s / academy football to first team football and it’s hard to make that transition but he’ll get there.  

We need to build the team bit by bit not by changing loads of players all the time.   

 

Q6 – There was talk of signing a Target man in the summer but this never happened, why not? And do you think not having one has made us a bit predictable with just always playing out from the back?

SN – I think the biggest difference between this season and the end of last season is not having Gino.  He’s been missed as his pace used to stretch defences and create space for others but he’s went to the Championship on £10+per week, we can’t compete with that and he’s hard to replace.

I don’t think having a target man would solve our problems, we have been a bit predictable and that’s a fair criticism but we need to improve and get the ball forward quicker and switch it faster playing with more pace.  I don’t think pumping it long is the answer.

Having some of our players injured, Cochrane & Natty hasn’t helped as they’re key to the way we want to play.

 

Q7 – I’ve got some stats for you, in the last 5 seasons we’ve won 25% of away games, drew 25% of away games and lost 50% of away games.  How do we improve this and is it a mindset issue, management or both?

SN – Mentality is a huge part, playing away is harder, the surroundings are unfamiliar and for a lot of teams in the league a draw is a good result but not for us, we need to expect to win.  We lost to St Mirren which wasn’t good but our mentality against Killie was good even when we were under pressure.  We’ve got the best defence in the league and that’s a great base to build on going forward. Against County we were solid in the first half and then got the goal and were comfortable throughout the match until the last few minutes and that’s what we’re looking for.

 

Q8 – Billy Brown & Jim Jeffries were here last month and they thought Hearts are ripe for a 3-5-2 formation, have you spoken to them about it?

SN – Not spoken to them, did enough of that when they were my manager 😊

We have played 3-5-2 in games, on Saturday when we dominated the ball, against Aberdeen we went 4-2-3-1 as we wanted to pin their full backs back.

It’s about getting the principles correct, when we’re attacking we want to go 2-2, whatever adds up ten  😊 but then on transition we might want to get to 5-5-0 in defence to cover ourselves.

 

Q9 – We’ve got Willie Colum and John Beaton at the weekend, what’s your thoughts on that?

SN – I used to like Colum when I played, you could give him stick and he’d take it and give it back.  I don’t worry about the refs and hope they won’t come into it at the weekend.

 

Q10 – We were delighted with the last 6 games of last season but this season hasn’t been as good, will we get better and back to that?

SN – We better or I’ll be out of a job 😊.  As I’ve said already Gino is the biggest difference I can point too he created chances, stretched the defence and was a big p[layer for us.

We’ve got lots of new signings who’ll take time to settle in and being in Europe whilst great, I don’t think we and Scottish Teams are best equipped to deal with Europe but we need to learn quickly because at times we can be too naïve.

We want to play in the opposition half and take the game to them, you can see it here at Tynecastle, if we play 5 or 6 passes at the back the murmurs and groans will start around the ground so we need to play on the front foot and I’ll set us up that way but the opposition will have spells in every game and we will need to be patient at times.  

 

Q10 – We’ve recruited several Australian’s, do we have a scout there?

JS – It’s a bit of everything, we did have a scout there for 3 or 4 months but he got another job so now we reply on Y Scout, different data, videos.  We also ask ex-Hearts players who are out there to watch them in a game if we can. Clubs are cutting back on scouts just now.

Oz players are relatively cheap and good value, possibly because the league is looked down upon, they got to the last 16 of the World Cup and we narrowly beaten by Argentina in the.  The signings we’ve made have been good and we want them to kick on.

 

Q11 – If a football pitch was a mile long Australia would win the world cup.  The 4 signings are all exactly the same.

JS – Bit cheeky but not sure what you mean, we’ve signed a RB, CB, DCM & CM 

            The guy confirmed he meant they were all hard working

SN – It’s a trait of Australian players that they always give 100%, that’s not a bad thing

Q12 – Why can’t we get a Viduka or Kewel?

JS – We were in for Tilio but he went to Celtic for £1.5m which we can’t compete with.  We were also in for Silvera but he went to Middlesborough on about £10k per week.  We do target players but sometimes we’re just priced out of getting them.  Viduka was called lazy but what a goalscoring and Kewel was excellent.

We want the best players we can get, be it Scottish / English lower leagues / abroad but we don’t have a huge budget especially compared to the old firm and we need to get players in for Steven to work with and develop. 

 

Q13 – Shankland wasn’t selected in the recent squad, how’s he doing?

SN – I spoke to Stevie Clarke about it and last season was incredible for Lawrence, he’s also been away with Scotland and hasn’t had a break with the busy schedule.  We’ve been suffering a bit with injuries and this has put added pressure on him to perform.  He’s had a few wee niggles and felt it’d be better to miss this squad and get a good break rather than go and not feature much.  

His leadership is second to none both on and off the pitch and I also think that we need to get better service to work with to make it easier for him.

 

Q14 – We’ve never beaten Rangers at Hampden, how do we change that?

SN – A lot can happen between now and then, there will likely be a new manager.  We’ll go and attack  because you can’t just sit back and wait for things to happen.  We’ll need to be excellent at the back and look to cause them problems.  Before the Killie game I told the players it’s a great chance to win something, 2 wins and we’re in a final.  Since I came here we’ve had two semis and two finals and were a couple of penalties away from winning the Scottish Cup.  We’ve not got another chance of a final and need to take it. 

 

Q15 – There was talk of us signing a Japanese right back in the summer, any update on that?

JS – Are you looking for a scoop? 😊

Yes we were in for Handa but he fractured his ankle and they keep everything close to their chest so it was hard to find out what had happened.  Their season also runs from March to Nov so it’s hard to get players out mid-season.  In January we’ll speak to Steven to see what he needs, but there’s nothing at the moment with Handa.

 

Q16 – What’s our cash budget for players?

JS – Our players typically pay 47% tax on what they earn and it can be hard to put that across and I try to ignore it when speak to players and agents 😊.  Agents will always ask Netto Netto 😊

In Edinburgh, it’s a great city and we’ll take them round and show them the sights, they’ll be up town and see a Penthouse and be like I’ll buy that (not on what we pay you you won’t 😊).   But we try to let them know that playing for us will be a great move for them and they’ll get chances.

The FOH is great and helps with our budget.  What I would say is our player trading hasn’t been great since I came in and needs to be better and needs to make money so we can reinvest in the squad.

 

Q17 – With Gordon coming back, who’ll be captain, him or Shanks 😊?

SN – Great question 😊  I think the media may make something of this but Shanks is a great captain and his leadership qualities are first class.  CG is only just back training and it’ll be a while before he’s back in the first team and when he does there won’t be an issue.

 

Q18 – What’s the link between the football side and the board like, there’s been unrest among some fans.  How do you cope?

JS – I think it’s quite harsh, the board try their best to put the best possible product on the pitch and in preseason we talked about having the best squad in years but the start hasn’t been what we wanted.

I’ve been called, fat, bald and ugly – I don’t think I’m that ugly😊.  I was given abuse for dancing on a table in Greece, I don’t drink I stood up on a chair clapped my hands twice and was slaughtered.  We’ve got no right to win football games and have to work hard and earn it.

Budge, McKinlay and the other board members support me so much but you see on Saturday when 20-30 fans start signing sack the board, it’s not nice but there’s nothing you can do.

I didn’t know that stat about Hampden and Rangers and what a chance for the players to create a wee bit history.

I love the board, think they’re great.  Until they sack me 😊

The board, like everyone here just want success and they want to give you guys success.

SN – What you have at Hearts is unique and special.  The board just want the best and may not be perfect but the grass isn’t always greener on the other side.  They want success for you guys.

 

Q19 – Can you give us an update on the injured players?

SN – Cochrane & Yutaro should be back after the international break

Halkett will hopefully be back in November but will take time to get up to speed.

McKay & Natty are out till the end of the year

Beni has just came back from a long term injury and is showing the inconsistency of someone who’s been out for over a year.

Finlay Pollock, we’ve got high hopes for him, he’s broke down a few times on his comeback so we’ll take it slow.

I think that’s all the players.

 

Q20 – With Craig Gordon being in his 40s, how easy will it be to get him match fit.

SN – His attitude is first class and his determination is top drawer.  He’s really motivated to get back playing at Tynecastle and also I think the Euros is a motivation for him next year in Germany.

He’s done well but we won’t rush him back and we won’t know how he gets on until he plays a game and that first challenge.  We could put him into a B Team match but it’s a bit uncontrolled and someone could take him out to make a name for himself.  We may look to organise games for him

 

Q21 – Gordon was here a few months back and said it was his dream to score a goal at Tynecastle 😊

SN – yeah that’s probably not going to happen 😊  We could let him take a penalty 😊

 

Q22 – What’s happening with your coaching certificates?

SN – What do you mean, I’m fully qualified 😊.

For international players, it’s a lot harder to get your certificates as the courses are often on International Breaks when I was away with Scotland.  But it’s due to start in January and that should solve the problem.

 

Q23 – It’s a big game at the weekend against Hibs, they’ve got a lot of threat and pace.  

SN – Yes they have but they’re not great at defending. 😊  They’ve got a threat but it’s about getting a hold of the game early and enforcing our game on to them and I’m condiment we can get the win.  

 

Q24 – Aberdeen & Hibs have signed young Scottish Players and made money (Ferguson & McGinn etc) why can’t we do that?

JS – I think Shankland would be the player closest to that in our squad.  We could sell him for millions but don’t want too.  Ferguson, I wasn’t at Hearts when he was available and I understand that there was interest in McGinn from Hearts but nothing came of it.

I think John Souttar would be the player that could have been in that bracket but we ended up losing him for nothing.

SN – Yes, Souttar is a prime example of that but due to injuries, we didn’t offer him a longer contract and he left for free.  Possibly Hickey, we signed him and sold him n for a good fee.

I think what we all want is our academy players coming through into the first team.

 

Q25 – For corners, why don’t we leave anyone up the field, it’s then so slow when we get the ball as we’ve nobody to play it too?

SN – We’ve not conceded a goal from a set piece this season 😊.  I agree that we need to be quicker at throw ins and at the back but just having someone up the field isn’t going to change that and doesn’t mean we’ll score more.

 

Q26 – With regards to the Academy, should we do a Brentford and just bin it?

JS – Not a chance, we’re a capital club and playing for Hearts is something that youngsters in the city aspire too and we want them to have that chance.  Also Brentford are actually bringing their academy back.

It’s frustrating for us and the fans as we all want youngsters to come through into the first team but it’s hard and we want just play them for the sake of it.  We are hopeful in the next few years we’ll get players coming through.

 

Q27 – Is the Academy at the Oriam good enough?

SN – On the face of it, it looks great, but the contract was signed years ago and we’re getting bigger and bigger and control is the major issue.  The board are desperate to improve.  Having the Oriam is good for players coming in especially from England where they expect a certain level of facilities.

 

Q28 – Any word on a new contract for Beni?

JS – We’re in discussions with his Agent.  Beni is happy here and wants to get back playing regularly and back to the level he was before.  He’s a player we really want to keep.